The formula and what counts
Net worth = total assets − total liabilities. Assets: cash and deposits, brokerage and retirement accounts, real estate at fair value, and vehicles or other valuables. Liabilities: mortgage balance, auto and student loans, and revolving credit. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s triennial Survey of Consumer Finances is the authoritative reference for how household net worth is distributed across the population.
Track the trend, not the snapshot
A single net-worth number is nearly meaningless; the slope is the signal. A household that plots net worth monthly sees the effect of saving, market moves, and debt paydown as a line, catching a downward drift months before an annual check would. The discipline turns net worth from a vanity number into an early-warning instrument.
Update monthly by linking, not by hand
Most planners recommend updating net worth at least monthly. Manual updates rarely survive past February; linking accounts through an aggregation layer makes the snapshot automatic and current. For households with accounts spread across several institutions, automatic aggregation is the difference between a number that is always live and one that is perpetually stale.